No Men Are Foreign (James Kirkup) — Practice

Question 1

Who wrote 'No Men Are Foreign' and when?

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: James Kirkup (1918-2009), British poet, published the poem in 1959 — in the post-WWII, early Cold War period.

Question 2

What is the central idea of the poem?

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: Universal human brotherhood — that all humans share the same body, breath, earth, hopes, and labour, regardless of nationality. 'Foreign' is a label, not a reality.

Question 3

What common features do all human beings share, according to the poem?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — Common body.
  'Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes like ours.' Beneath military or any other surface markers, we have the same physical bodies.

Step 2 — Common earth.
  'The land our brothers walk upon is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.' The same earth supports us in life and receives us in death.

Step 3 — Common elements.
  'They, too, aware of sun and air and water.' All humans need and experience the same natural elements.

Step 4 — Common food and starvation.
  'Fed by peaceful harvests, by war's long winter starv'd.' Food in peacetime, hunger in war — same for all.

Step 5 — Common labour.
  'Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read / A labour not different from our own.' Even the lines on palms tell the same stories of work.

Step 6 — Common eyes and rest.
  'They have eyes like ours that wake or sleep.'

Step 7 — Common heart.
  'Strength that can be won by love.' All humans respond to love and warmth.

✦ Answer: According to the poem, all humans share: (1) the same body breathing beneath uniforms, (2) the same earth in life and death, (3) the same elements (sun, air, water), (4) the same food in peace and hunger in war, (5) the same hands and labour, (6) the same eyes that wake and sleep, (7) the same strength won by love. The differences (uniforms, languages, flags) are surface; the similarities are essential.

Question 4

What happens when we hate our 'brothers' according to the poem?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — Hate is taught.
  The poem says 'whenever we are TOLD to hate our brothers' — implying hate is INSTILLED by propaganda, governments, ideologies, leaders.

Step 2 — Three consequences.
  When we hate others, we:
  • DISPOSSESS ourselves — lose our own humanity
  • BETRAY ourselves — betray our true nature as one humanity
  • CONDEMN ourselves — condemn ourselves to violence and isolation

Step 3 — Physical destruction.
  Hate leads to war. War creates 'hells of fire and dust' that 'outrage the innocence of air that is everywhere our own.'

Step 4 — The air is shared.
  Air has no borders. Pollution from bombs, smoke from war — all spread through air that is COMMONLY OURS. We poison our own commons.

Step 5 — Self-destruction principle.
  The deepest tragedy of hate is that we don't just harm OTHERS — we harm OURSELVES. The 'enemy' is part of the same humanity we are part of.

✦ Answer: When we hate our 'brothers', we are actually destroying OURSELVES: (1) we DISPOSSESS ourselves of our humanity, (2) we BETRAY our true nature as one human family, (3) we CONDEMN ourselves to violence and isolation. War creates 'hells of fire and dust' that pollute the COMMON AIR — outraging the very element we all share. Hate is self-destructive because the 'other' is, fundamentally, US.

Question 5

How does James Kirkup use repetition, parallel structure, and imagery to drive home the message of universal brotherhood?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — Repetition of 'Remember'.
  The word 'remember' is repeated three times — opening of stanza 1, opening of stanza 3, and the closing line. This REFRAIN:
  • Frames the poem
  • Creates a mantra-like effect
  • Implies brotherhood is easily forgotten
  • Insists on the URGENCY of remembering

Step 2 — Parallel structure.
  'They TOO are aware of sun and air...' — the parallel insistence on 'they too' / 'they have' / 'their hands are' systematically maps THEM onto US:
  • Their body = our body
  • Their earth = our earth
  • Their elements = our elements
  • Their food/starvation = our food/starvation
  • Their hands = our hands
  • Their eyes = our eyes

Step 3 — Why parallel structure works.
  Each parallel claim is a small argument: another way 'they' = 'us'. Together they overwhelm the reader with the sameness. By the end, the idea of 'foreign' feels artificial.

Step 4 — Imagery — physical.
  The poem uses CONCRETE PHYSICAL IMAGES rather than abstract concepts:
  • Body breathing
  • Hands with palm lines
  • Eyes that wake and sleep
  • Earth, sun, air, water, harvests
  Physical = unarguable. We all have bodies; we all need air. Hard to deny.

Step 5 — Imagery — elemental.
  Sun, air, water, earth — the four classical elements. By appealing to ELEMENTAL imagery, Kirkup makes brotherhood seem NATURAL, not political.

Step 6 — Negative imagery — war.
  'Hells of fire and dust' — vivid image of war's destruction. Contrasted with the natural elements, war seems UNNATURAL.

Step 7 — Air as universal commons.
  'Air that is everywhere our own' — air recognises no borders. War pollutes the air WE ALL BREATHE. A subtle environmental argument too.

Step 8 — Direct address.
  'Remember' is a command. Addresses the reader directly. Makes the poem feel like personal moral instruction.

Step 9 — Free verse with rhythm.
  Despite being free verse (no rhyme), the poem has STRONG RHYTHM through parallel structure. It sounds like a moral mantra, not lecture.

Step 10 — Combined effect.
  All these techniques together create:
  • Emotional urgency (repetition)
  • Systematic argument (parallels)
  • Vivid impact (imagery)
  • Universal relevance (elemental focus)
  • Personal address (direct 'remember')

Step 11 — Why it persuades.
  Kirkup doesn't argue intellectually — he SHOWS through accumulation. By the end, hating a 'foreigner' feels like hating a brother, because the poem has so thoroughly established the brotherhood.

Step 12 — Lessons in poetic technique.
  This poem is a model for how to write PERSUASIVE POETRY using:
  • Repetition
  • Parallel structure  
  • Concrete imagery
  • Direct address
  • Refrain
  Students can apply these techniques to their own writing.

✦ Answer: Kirkup uses (1) REPETITION ('remember' x3 — opens stanzas 1, 3, closes poem), (2) PARALLEL STRUCTURE ('they too... they have... their hands are' — systematically equating THEM with US in every way), (3) IMAGERY (concrete physical and elemental — body, hands, eyes, sun, air, water, earth), (4) NEGATIVE IMAGERY of war ('hells of fire and dust' contrasted with natural elements), and (5) DIRECT ADDRESS to the reader. Together these techniques create an emotional, systematic, vivid, universal, and personal argument for brotherhood. By the end, hating a 'foreigner' feels like hating a brother — because Kirkup has so thoroughly established the brotherhood through technique.

Practice — No Men Are Foreign (James Kirkup)

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